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A homeless man takes food from a trash can in Los Angeles’ Skid Row area, home to the nation’s largest concentration of homeless people, Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) more >

Nine Los Angeles residents have been charged in a voter fraud scheme after allegedly paying homeless people to forge signatures on voter registration forms and ballot petitions during the 2016 and 2018 elections.

Nine people face several criminal charges, including voter fraud, circulating a petition with fake names and registering a fictitious person, stemming from a “large-scale voter fraud scheme” on Skid Row, Los Angeles County prosecutors said in a Tuesday release.

Prosecutors have accused the defendants of soliciting hundreds of false and forged signatures on state ballot petitions and voter registration forms by “offering homeless people $1 and/or cigarettes for their participation.”

The charges, which were filed three weeks ago but made public Tuesday, followed a police crackdown on voter fraud on Skid Row earlier this year, The Los Angeles Times reported.

“They paid individuals to sign the names,” Officer Deon Joseph, who is leading the crackdown, told The Times in September. “That’s an assault on our democracy.”

District attorney spokeswoman Shiara Davila-Morales said none of the homeless people who signed the names were charged.